Reverse Romance
by celestial-sunflower
Summary: non-magical Jily AU. James and Lily meet in an unorthodox way, but chance encounters give them a chance at romance. Multi-chapter fic currently in progress. Please review to let me know if I should continue it!
1. Chapter 1

CHAPTER ONE

Lily Evans was an adult. And as an adult, it was perfectly acceptable to get totally gubbed and have a casual shag with a stranger. At least that's what she was telling herself at seven in the morning when she woke up naked in a bed that wasn't hers. She tried to sit up, but immediately laid back down, her hand pressed tightly over her forehead. The throbbing behind her eyes, along with her fuzzy memories of the previous night's affairs was a sure sign she'd had way more fun than she should've.  
She slowly crept out of the bed and gathered her scattered clothing, trying very hard not to wake up the naked man still asleep on the bed.  
She managed to put herself back together and exit the building without disturbing her companion and was soon on her way home. Once oriented with her surroundings, she found that the place she had ended up the night before was only a few blocks from where she lived. She decided a brisk walk in the cool morning air would help clear her thoughts anyway, so she continued on foot.  
Although her brain rattled with every step she took, she managed to clear some things up. She remembered events in pieces. Marlene daring her to do shots, dancing to the thump of the bass, talking with a guy, then dancing with a guy, then snogging a guy, then leaving with a guy. After that things had gone pretty quickly. Lips had been on necks, clothes had been removed and she had woken up in a stranger's bed. She was quite relieved to remember details of the man's face and find that he was indeed, attractive. Very attractive, but that was beside the point, I mean she had already shagged the guy.  
When she reached her small flat, she took a look in the mirror. What she saw was what she expected. Staring back at her was a zombified version of the pretty girl who had left the night before. Her makeup was so smeared she looked like she had bruises, her hair was oily at the roots and tangled at the ends, and she looked pale enough to scare a ghost.  
Tired of seeing herself in such a state, she put on The White Album, popped some painkillers and hopped in the shower.  
Cleaning herself up made Lily feel better and gave her a sense of satisfaction. She was starting a new job today and she did not want to have her new boss thinking she was some sort of alcoholic.  
She made herself some toast and set out to go to work.

The exterior of the bookstore was in shambles. The building had to be a hundred years old judging by the cracking bricks around the faded wooden door.  
The interior wasn't much better, it smelled of must and old paper and the walls were so packed full of shelves which were packed full of books that anyone could feel claustrophobic.  
Despite its flaws and dusty atmosphere, Lily felt at home in the place. She had stumbled upon it on her way to university one day and took quick note of the "help wanted" sign in the window. Two weeks later and she was starting a new job.  
Her boss was a shriveled woman who appeared to be as old as the shop she owned. She was barley tall enough to see over the counter and wore long floral dresses with her white hair in a braid down her back. She looked up at Lily through glasses resting on the tip of her nose as she laid out her duties for the day, most of which were simple and doting tasks that Lily mostly enjoyed.  
The morning went by quickly and without many customers. Eventually Elkah, Lily's boss, announced that she could take her lunch break as soon as her replacement came in.  
Fifteen minutes passed before she heard the jingle of the bell tied around the door and Elkahs shrill, crackling voice conversing with a velvety tenor.  
She picked her way through the stacks of books to the front of the store, her stomach rumbling with anticipation of her nearly reached lunch hour.  
She reached the end of the stacks and stopped dead in her tracks. Her eyes went wide with shock and she thought she might've stopped breathing. There, standing in front of her, in her place of work, was the man whose bed she had woken up in earlier that morning. She heard the old woman's voice, but she didn't exactly comprehend the words. She thought briefly that it was some kind of introduction before his eyes locked with hers and a smirk spread across his face. So it was him. Yes, it was definitely him. She recognized the shape of his glasses and the way his thick, dark hair stood up in all directions, but most of all she noticed his arrogant posture. She scowled.  
"Lily?" Elkah asked, a worry lacing her voice. She turned to the woman and smiled, Elkah returned the smile and continued with a gesture at the man in front of her, "this is your coworker, James."


	2. Chapter 2

Quick note here. I couldn't sleep tonight but I was feeling creative so I thought I'd write some. So mind you none of this has been edited, I tried to read through it some but I just keep getting more ideas so I apologize if it's completely muddled. I will edit it at a later time. Thanks for reading!

"Nice to meet you." The tone of Lily's voice matched the seemingly sweet smile plastered across her face, but her eyes were cold and brutal as she looked at the man. He gave her a knowing wink, which only hardened her gaze, her freckled cheeks flushing a dark pink as she tried not to think about the fact that he had seen her quite naked only a few hours previous.  
"Well I think I'll head out then." Lily said to Elkah, whose oblivious expression made her feel slightly better.  
She scurried past him, their arms brushing as she squeezed through the narrow space, making her blush even harder.  
She hurried down the street to her usual cafe, her hands stuffed in her pockets and her head turned slightly down so her wavy hair could cover the ridiculous blush on her cheeks.

"Rough day at the office?" She looked up as Remus, the owner of the small shop and now her good friend, thanks to her need for caffeine, set down her usual coffee order.  
"You don't know the half of it" Lily replied watching him sit down across from her with a sympathetic smile gracing his lips.

For the next few weeks, Lily did her absolute best to avoid the cocky bloke, Jamie? She thought his name was? As much as humanly possible. She left for lunch early and as soon as she got back she darted upstairs to finish the last two hours of her shift doing some made-up job of organizing new arrivals. Anytime she was unlucky enough to be stuck with him, he only made her furious. He'd make some sexual comment and she'd threaten to sue and he'd sulk off to another corner of the shop.  
One hateful day the gods of fate turned against her and Elkah was put into the hospital. The little old woman apparently had suffered from a minor heart attack. Lily had, of course, gone to visit her as soon as she heard the news, but the doctors and the frail old woman herself both assured her she would be perfectly fine and back to her usual self before they knew it. Content knowing all she needed was a bit of rest, Lily left the hospital to go and reopen the bookshop. What she didn't account for was that no one had told the cocky bloke what had happened and when she returned he was sitting outside on the stoop of the old building presumably waiting for his shift. Lily, being the overly polite person she was, walked right by him and up the steps to unlock the door with her newly acquired set of keys.  
"Oh good gods I thought maybe the place had shut down and no one has bothered to tell me." He said brushing his pants off as he stood up. She didn't even glance at him as she walked inside the shop and set up the register for the day's work.  
"So what did happen?" He questioned her. Lily stayed silent, ignoring him and hoping maybe he'd catch a hint and go away. "Oi red?!" He half-shouted and snapped his fingers near inches from her face. This made the little freckled girl whip her head around in anger. "My name is Lily, thank you very much."  
"So you can hear? I thought for a moment maybe you'd gone deaf." He said with a cheeky smile.  
"Listen, Jim, Jamie, whatever your name is, I'm just here to do my job and get paid so if you'd kindly move out of the way I need to turn the sign to open so we can get at least some business today." She snapped as she pushed past him toward the front door.  
"You're quite firey, although I do think I might remember you being something like that in bed..." He said, and obvious grin on his face. Lily froze, and silently thanked the gods that her back was turned to him so he couldn't see how red she was. She took a deep breath and turned toward him. "Listen Jamie, I'll tell you all you need to know so you can quit pestering me now and hopefully forever." He quirked an eyebrow in anticipation, but stayed silent. "Elkah suffered from a minor heart attack. She'll be fine she just needs to rest for a while before she can't come back to work. As for our relationship, I deny any fact that I ever slept with you, because frankly it was a huge mistake as I am now realizing, and you are to never mention it again. Now kindly stay out of my way. " she finished with a sinful grin and placed herself neatly behind the cash register. James, who looked quite shocked, stayed quiet for the next few minutes. And thankfully for lily, just as he was about to open his mouth, the bell above the door jingled and a small family came inside to shop around.

James was utterly shocked at the amount of feist in the short redhead's body. She had completely wrecked him in one fowl swoop and he spent most of the day contemplating it. He knew she was lying about the sex being a mistake. Well it might've been a drunken mistake, but he was sober enough at the time to remember that she enjoyed herself as much as he did. That thought was the only thing keeping his ego together. He stayed away from her the whole afternoon, even when they weren't busy, but after a while, his curiosity got the best of him. He made his way through the towers of books to the front register slowly, his hands shoved nonchalantly in his pockets. She didn't even look up when he came to a stop in front of the counter where she was sitting filling out some disgusting looking form. He decided to test his luck and made his way toward the door. Just as he began to push it open she stopped him. "And just where do you think you're going?" She asked without so much as looking up from her paperwork.  
"Oh so now I'm more than just a ghost?" He walked back and leaned against the desk. Sensing she wasn't going to reply, he sighed dramatically before saying "I was just going to leave and get some dinner, it is closing time you know" he watched her with raised eyebrows as she brushed her long hair behind her ears and looked up at him.  
"Oh no, it isn't closing time yet little Jamie." She said with a grin. He had to admit the little flutter his heart did when she called him that made him never want to correct her. " as you'll recall, we opened late today which means we must stay open later. Besides I have a hell of a lot more paperwork to do. " she said with a heavy sigh. So, sensing he wouldn't get much more out of her, he wandered back to the mystery section and began placing all the new arrivals.

A few hours later, Lily finished her temporary managerial duties, and decided it wasn't nearly busy enough to stay open any later. She called for Jamie and told him he could go home. she did one last sweep of the store before heading out the door and turning to lock it behind her. "You must be hungry," a voice behind her started and she nearly jumped out of her skin.  
"Shit, Jamie," she sighed, seeing the familiar face at the bottom of the steps. "I thought you'd gone home."  
"Sorry," he winced, "I didn't mean to startle you, I just figured you probably hadn't eaten all day, and you did a lot of work today from what I could tell so I thought I'd take you to dinner." He finished, suddenly becoming more interested in looking at his shoes than looking at her.  
"And what exactly makes you think I'd want to go to dinner with you?" She asked, crossing her arms over her chest and leaning back against the door.  
"Well, I've kind of been a dick the last few weeks. I mean I can see why you've been avoiding me, anytime I get a chance to talk to you I always have to say something crass, but you... you make me nervous." He laughed slightly and ran his hand through his hair, making her heart squeeze in an unfamiliar way. "So I thought if I bought you a good meal, I could make it up to you." He finally met her eyes and she thought she might burst into tears looking into those hazel orbs that held so much sincerity in that moment.  
"What the hell, let's go." She said, pushing past him. "But I'm picking the place. And for the record this is not a date, by any means. I'm just tired and hungry and will never pass up free food. Got it?" She looked over her shoulder to see him still standing at the foot of the steps looking shell-shocked and the sight was enough to illicit a genuine laugh from her that seemed to jerk him back to reality and he ran to catch up with her.

Fifteen minutes later and they say across from each other in Over the Moon cafe, Lily's favourite lunch spot. Remus came over to take their order, giving Lily a not-so-secret wink that made her green eyes widen and her pale face blush. Which in turn made James grin like mad. "What'll you have then Lilyflower?" He asked looking at her adoringly, which only made her blush harder.  
"I'll just have the usual, thank you Remus." She said, too hungry to fight his stupid nickname at the moment.  
"You're perfectly adorable when you blush you know." James said, once Remus had left with their order, which of course made her blush again.  
"Oh shut it lover boy." She replied as she turned her head to look out the window.  
Much to James's happiness, they spent several hours at the cafe, talking and laughing. And to top things off, he even got to walk her home. Any other night he would've tried to kiss her, the way her pale skin glowed in the streetlights drove him mad, but he didn't want to ruin his first good encounter with her, so he contained himself.

The next day they each got a call from Elkah who, despite her condition, was outraged at them for having tried to run the store on their own. She scolded them each thoroughly in her thick German accent and told them they must stay home until she came back on Wednesday and that the little shop would be fine to be closed for three days. Lily, not being one to argue, abided by the old woman's wishes and spent the majority of that Sunday in bed reading and listening to records and trying her damnedest not to admit to herself what a great time she had had with her coworker the night before.

James, being slightly terrified of the old woman, also stayed at home. Only instead of distracting himself he spent most of the day talking nonstop about the perfect redheaded girl to a very disgruntled Sirius Black, who was seriously regretting having asked how his night was. 


End file.
